One Hot Mess

In the beginning of April, I traveled with some of my family to Portland, OR to visit my brother. Luke was turning 30 years old, and it’s hard for us Cusack’s to miss a party that big! Before I could leave for Portland in the morning, I had to write two papers, study for one exam, submit a reading response, do laundry (surprise surprise), and pack. School work was most important so that was done first. About halfway through washing my clothes, I decided to set an early alarm to finish packing. At 1:30 am I fell asleep with every intention to wake up before 5 am to finish packing so we could leave by 6. Well needless to say, at 5:45 my mom woke me up ready to load the car. I was frantic. I had nothing ready to go, and some of my clothes were still soaking wet. I was not prepared at all for my trip to Portland.

When I was living in Texas, we called a frantic/unprepared person a “Hot Mess”.  I’m not really sure where that saying originates, but not packing for Portland was definitely not the first time I have been a Hot Mess. In fact I had one of these moments the other day when I was headed to the pool at the Ridge for a water workout. My hair was all over the place, only one of my legs was shaved, I left my heart monitor at home and my water bottle had leaked all over my gym bag. It was almost hilarious.  My Hot Mess days are 100% avoidable if I take the time to prepare.  If only I would have given myself longer than five minutes to shave, attended fewer meetings and went to bed earlier, my day at the pool would have been a little less messy.

Taking on my day requires me to plan ahead and has become my hidden lesson of the week.  Not only do I need to know what I am doing in the next hour, but I also need to know where my day will take me.  Because I am not eating out, I have to be fully aware of what my day holds.  Currently, I find myself waking up with just enough time to jump in my gym clothes and speed off to the Ridge. Well not speed, but you get the picture. If I remember, I grab a piece of fruit, and that is my “pre-breakfast”. I then eat a big, but late, normal breakfast and head to work at 2 pm. As a result of not preparing for my day, I start to feel hungry and have nothing to eat! I try to scrape together pocket snacks or something to keep me satisfied until I arrive home for dinner.  

My foolishness and lack of preparation leaves me hungry and unbalanced in my meal choices. My Hot Mess days are totally avoidable if I can learn to take the time to prepare. If I had a list of healthy snacks (that are NOT veggies, because I know how to eat those) or even have packed snacks for my day ahead of time, I could avoid being a Hot Mess. I am realizing that in order for my journey to be a success, I need to have less unplanned days and more structure to my eating.

One Less Day